Psychometric Factors and Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Towards Research: Evidence From Vietnam

Abstract

Scientific research is an extremely important element in higher education. Nearly all undergraduate students at the university are required to take research courses in the formation process. Therefore, the current paper aims to explore Vietnamese undergraduate students’ attitudes towards research. To measure attitudes towards research, the study used Papanastasiou’s Revised Attitude Towards Research (R-ATR) scale (2014). This psychometric proprieties scale consisted of 13 items with three factors: research usefulness (4 items), research anxiety (5 items), and positive research predispositions (4 items). Data were collected by a questionnaire survey on a convenient sample of 520 undergraduate students from six universities in Vietnam. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that the students’ attitudes were high in the factor of research usefulness and positive research predispositions. However, in the factor of anxiety, the attitudes were moderate. In addition, the public undergraduate students had significantly more positive attitudes towards research than the private undergraduate students. Similarly significant results were found for gender, year of study, and research experience.